Bath Salts User Tasered After Car Chase, Police Say

Sirens, tire spikes and a crashed car apparently weren't enough to stop an Easton man accused of leading state police on a chase through Bushkill Township.

Instead, it took a taser to bring down Mark Nichols, who was allegedly on bath salts when he passed them doing 101 mph Wednesday night.

A police affadavit gives the following account:

State troopers from the Belfast barracks saw Nichols, 29, of 46 N. Sixth St., speeding south on Route 33 in Bushkill Township around 8:30 p.m.

The troopers flashed their lights and sounded their siren to get Nichols to stop, but he kept driving, getting off the highway and making his way to Route 512.

At one point, police put down tire spikes in the road to stop Nichols. The spikes chewed through three of his tires, but he kept going.

Police say Nichols lost control of his car, crashing into the deck at a home on Redstone Drive.

Nichols got out of the car and began to run, and police took him down with a Taser, the affadavit says.

Police found a bag containing a substance that turned out to be methamphetamine near the scene of the crash, and said Nichols also smelled of marijuana.

Investigators eventually determined Nichols had been high on bath salts—the street name for a family of stimulants—at the time of the case. He was charged with fleeing/eluding police, criminal mischief, multiple counts of driving while under the influence and numerous traffic violations.

Nichols was arraigned before on-duty District Judge Richard Yetter, and sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $65,000 bail.